Archives for July 2017

If you’re one of those searching for information on how to make money by scamming people online, this page is for you.

I actually wrote this article because I discovered that a lot of Nigerians are now searching the web for tips on how to scam others. Now, sit back and read this article to the end.

What does it mean to scam people?

In simple terms, scamming people simply means using clever means to swindle them out of their hard-earned cash. It’s somewhat easier to do online because scammers can hide their true identities and provide fake evidences whenever required.

Why do people go into scamming?

Well, I really don’t know your exact reason for thinking scamming is your best bet, but here are some common reasons why people go into it.

They’ve tried so hard to make money through legitimate means, but nothing seemed to work.

They feel there’s no point striving for years to make money legitimately when scams can make you a millionaire overnight.

They feel seriously “oppressed” by some “Yahoo guys” and “G-boys” who are making a killing from online scams and have big cars and lavish lifestyles to show for it.

They’ve fallen victims to scams in the past, and they think the best way to get solace is to take it out on innocent people.

They’ve always had this mindset that only fools work hard to get money (not knowing that even scamming people online requires hard work).

Whatever your reason is, your ultimate goal is to make money — quickly. And that’s the same for everyone who decides to be a scammer.

Now, let’s get more serious…

You see, my friend, I understand that you need money. I need it, too. But looking for crooked means to get it quickly is not the right thing to do.

You might have been scammed in the past. You might have tried hard to get a job or other means of making money legitimately. And you might have felt oppressed by those who are making money as online scammers. But all of that still don’t justify your decision to turn into a scammer.

Just so you know, being a scammer requires hard work. Lots of it. And it requires an out-of-this-world level of smartness. You have to keep multiple identities online without ever mixing things up. You have to be quick at coming up with world-class lies that are hard to bust. You have to be online for hours at stretch. And you have to clean your tracks all the time to avoid prying eyes. All these require some level of intelligence. And if you have that already, trust me, you’d be better off with legitimate businesses.

Again, if you can channel all that smartness, time, and effort into legitimate online businesses, you’d be able to make money without losing sleep or taking furtive glances all the time. And you’ll feel free to tell the whole world what you’re doing to make money.

If the above doesn’t convince you to have a rethink, then consider the fact that whatever is acquired illegitimately doesn’t last. Where are the Yahoo boys who painted the towns and cities red few years back? They are now serving jail terms, dead, still on the run, living miserable lives or making money legitimately after “repenting”. Where are the cars and girls they flaunted all around? Where are the dollar notes they brandished all over the place?

Whether you’re the religious type or not, the truth is that karma is real. And you sure have witnessed a good number of real life stories that can best be described with the line, “You reap what you sow”.

So, if you think making other people sad by stealing their money would be the solution to your problems, expect a worse fate later on. By the time your victims have counted their losses and moved on with their lives, karma would be at your neck, forcing hot gulps of regret and melancholy down your throat.

And just so you know, not everyone who goes into online scamming makes money from it. That’s the truth. Only few scammers get to land “big catches”. And even then, it doesn’t happen all the time. So, what’s the point selling your soul to the devil in a deal you’re not assured of profit from?

So, please, if you’ve been nurturing plans to scam people online to make money, ditch them now. There are more than countable ways to make money online legitimately over a short or long term. If you do your findings well, you’ll find what is right for you. And if for any reason online business sounds like a no-no for you, then consider starting a business offline — or get a job.

Scamming people is a crime. And crime never pays!

Your turn

If you have any questions, contributions, objections or anything else, share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Since mid 2016, I’ve been somewhat inactive on this blog due to two major reasons.

First, medical school became tougher than ever, and I barely had enough time for anything else but lectures, clinical postings, and studying. Second, I needed to focus more on my passive income channel — the Amazon Affiliate Program.

Credit: Marketever

So, the little time I had for other things except studying Medicine, I channeled into maintaining my Amazon affiliate niche sites and creating new ones. You know why I love this model? It’s the easiest way to realize the “make money while you’re sleeping” dream.

It’s not that I lost the zeal to continue sharing helpful information on this blog (of course, I’ve just resumed doing that). But it’s just normal and intuitive for anyone with very limited time to spend that little time on the most financially rewarding tasks. That’s why the little time I had then for online business went into crafting content for my niche sites, publishing outsourced content, and monitoring my progress with the Amazon affiliate program.

To say the Amazon affiliate program has been financially rewarding is an understatement. Only few things could be more fulfilling than raking over $1000 monthly from few niche sites.

And guess what…Two of my three niche sites that are presently earning that monthly total have less than 20 articles published on them. And the cumulative traffic that generates that income is less than 500 daily visits.

Here’s a screenshot of my earnings from the Amazon Affiliate Program between January 1 and December 31, 2016.

And here’s a screenshot of my earnings so far in 2017.

As you can see, my earnings so far in 2017 — with 5 months left — has already surpassed my total for the whole of 2016. Good for me. And it can always get better.

How can you also tap from this?

For some time now, I’ve been thinking of teaching some serious-minded fellow Nigerians how to make money from the Amazon affiliate program, just as I’m doing. But I really don’t have the time to develop a detailed e-book or e-course on the subject.

Each time I feel like starting something in that line, I quickly get tempted to channel my efforts into creating more content for my niche sites or rather set up new sites based on the ideas I already have that are begging for my attention. You might call that selfishness, but you’d be caught in the same dilemma if you were in my shoes.

Imagine that you have two options:

Create an e-course or e-book that would go for N10,000, and would sell to at most 40 people over the next 12 months (generating a total of N400,000).

Set up new Amazon niche sites that would start earning a cumulative total of $500 per month after 6-7 months (and would therefore have generated at least $2,500 over the next 12 months).

Now, tell me which of the options you’d choose.

But I came up with another idea.

Since all of the information you need to succeed with the Amazon Affiliate program is available for free online, I’d direct you to some detailed resources on the subject. That way, I would have helped you a great deal without necessarily having to craft a new course or e-book.

UPDATE: Here’s Good News!

After so much pressure on me to create an e-book that Nigerian beginners can easily understand and implement, I’m glad to inform you that the e-book is now available. Titled “Affiliate Cash Blueprint”, the e-book covers all you need to know about affiliate marketing in Nigeria and how you too can start making money via the Amazon Affiliate Program and other programs.

But before I drop the links, I need to tell you some important things you should know about this amazing income stream:

You’ll be promoting products available on Amazon to a native English-speaking — majorly American — audience. These are products you’ve most likely not used or seen before, but you can get detailed information about them on their respective pages on Amazon.

Since your audience has no time for crappy English, you must be an exceptional writer. If you’re not a good writer, you must be ready to pay generously for top-quality content (it’s not cheap!).

You must be a fast learner because you need to get used to some tools such as keyword research tools, special plugins, and so on.

You must be ready to start with a self-hosted WordPress blog. Blogger and other free platforms just won’t cut it!

This is not a get-rich-quick thing. Sometimes, it takes up to 8 months to record your first sale. So, if you have no job at the moment, this won’t start paying you by next month!

There’s no guarantee that this would work. That’s one harsh truth that applies to every business. But a smart way to reduce your risk is to plan to set up multiple niche sites, so the one or few that succeed would compensate for those that fail. But if you play by the rules of the game, your chances of failing are slim.

Take your time to read each article in detail. I understand that some of them are very long, but if you really want to learn how to make money from the program, you have to pay the price in time. Those resources were crafted by experts who learned by either trial-and-error or by paying heavily for courses and mentorship. So, if you’re only paying with your time and that’s still too much for you, I think you can wait for the next opportunity.

Questions? Questions?? Questions???

Now, I understand that you’ll have questions to ask after reading those resources, especially since they were not written specifically for Nigerians. That’s why I have crafted this post in the first place.

Here, you’ll have the opportunity to ask all the questions you have about the Amazon affiliate program and how to make money from it by setting up niche sites.

So, feel free to ask me anything, and I’ll try to answer your questions to the best of my capacity. But let me sound two notes of warning:

Don’t ask me any question until you’ve read all those resources (I can tell if you’ve read them or not).

Don’t ask a question that has already been asked by someone else and answered by me. So, before asking your question, read through the ones already asked and answered in the comments section.

If you’re bent on making money online in Nigerialegitimately, then you’ll find more than enough opportunities to tap from — both within and outside the country.

It’s a no brainer, though, but the foreign programs are far more reliable and lucrative. And that’s cool, since most of them allow and accept Nigerians.

Before now, most of the foreign online affiliate programs and online revenue handling companies offer only PayPal and Check as payment options. And that was quite worrisome for most Nigerians; receiving money through check is an intricate process, while receiving money through PayPal was impossible — and is still impossible.

But for some years now, one blessed company called Payoneer has been to the rescue of many Nigerians, helping them to achieve their dream of making money online from foreign programs.

Payoneer issues a prepaid debit Mastercard card that can be used to receive money directly from many online platforms such as freelance job sites (e.g. Freelancer and Elance), affiliate programs (e.g. Markethealth), pay-per-click programs (e.g. Infolinks), and many others.

More interestingly, Payoneer issues U.S. virtual bank accounts to interested users and links those accounts to the users’ cards. So, with that you can receive payments from online platforms that pay through the direct deposit (ACH) option, which is now very popular.

Now, you can receive your earnings from most online revenue programs — thanks to Payoneer. Using a Payoneer card, you can withdraw your earnings from most ATMs in the country.

No doubt, Payoneer is the best alternative to PayPal that is available to Nigerians.

With all of the above in mind, let me now walk you through the process of getting your own Payoneer Mastercard card here in Nigeria.

How to request your Payoneer Mastercard card

Note: Before proceeding to request a Payoneer card, you must have any of the following government-issued ID documents:

International passport

Driver’s license

National ID card

Aside being required to enter the number on your government-issued ID document, you’ll also be required to submit a scanned photo of the document from time to time for verification purposes.

So, if you don’t have any of the above listed ID documents, stop reading this post right now, and get one first before requesting your card.

You’ve got one of the documents? Great! Then carry on with the following steps…

On the home page, move your mouse pointer to the “Receive & Withdraw” link in the top menu. A dropdown menu will appear. Select “Prepaid Mastercard Card” from that menu (see red arrow in screenshot below):

On the next page that appears, click the “Sign Up Now” button (see red arrow in screenshot below):

You’ll be taken to the first page (Getting Started) of the sign up form and will be required to enter the following:

Your first name (exactly as it appears on your ID document).

Your last name (exactly as it appears on your ID document).

Your email address.

Your date of birth (exactly as it appears on your ID document) — use the popup calendar box.

After entering all the details, double-check to ensure that you’ve not made any mistake. Then click the “Next” button at the bottom of the page.

On the next page (Contact Details) of the sign up form, you’ll be required to enter the following:

Your country (select Nigeria).

Your street address.

Your city.

Your postal/zip code (enter 11001 or 110001).

Your phone number (select the “mobile” option, select “Nigeria (+234)” from the international code list, and then enter your mobile phone number without the initial “0” — e.g. 8062357604 instead of 08062357604)

After entering the required details, double-check for errors, and click the “Next” button

The next page you’ll see is the Security Details page, where you’ll be required to select your password as well as security question and answer.

Warning: Don’t ever forget your security question and answer. I strongly recommend that you choose a question you can easily answer without racking your brain!

After entering the required details, click the “Next” button.

You’ll be taken to the last page of the sign up form, where you’ll be required to select the type of government-issued ID document you have (driver’s license, international passport, or national ID card).

Once you select your ID type, some fields would appear so you can enter the details of the document, such as expiry date, country of issue, and number.

Just below that, you will see the “Enter alternate shipping address” part. If you’re cocksure that you do receive mails by post at the home address you submitted earlier (the address on your ID document), don’t bother checking this box.

But if you’ve never received posts by mail to that address before or you’re not sure whether you can, it’s better to choose a different shipping address (that is, the address to which your card will be shipped). You’re allowed to include a include a P.O. box in that address (but still include your home address first — in the first address field — and enter your P.O. box number in the second address box).

Next, proceed to check the three agreement boxes, and click the “Order” button.

The next page will display a message confirming that your application has been received and is being reviewed. You will receive the same message via email.

Within 3-5 business days, you should receive another email from Payoneer, stating whether your card has been shipped or not.

Once your card has been shipped, wait for up to 28 days to get it delivered to your stated address. As for me, I’ve received a Mastercard card from Payoneer on 3 different occasions, and in each instance I received the card at my Abeokuta address within 20 days after shipping.

If you’ve not received your Payoneer card after 30 days, then visit the nearest post office to make enquiries about the card. It could be that the card has been delivered there but wasn’t brought to you.

However, if you still cannot find or receive your card, you will have to request another one. In that case, I’d strongly recommend that you use another delivery address or P.O. box — one that has been used severally to receive post mails.

If you use an ambiguous address again, you risk losing the card the second time. And if that happens, you’ll be required to pay $50 before a third card can be shipped to you. Now, that’s a decent amount of money — a price you can avoid paying by being extremely careful with your choice of delivery address.

After receiving your card…

Activate your card by following the instructions on the label included in the envelope. Once you’ve completed the activation, you can start using your card to receive funds.

How to get your U.S. virtual bank account

After activating your card, log in to your account at Payoneer.com (using your email address and the password you submitted while completing the sign up form).

After logging in to your account, move your mouse pointer to the “Receive” link in the top menu and click “US Virtual Bank Account” from the drop-down menu.

Complete your request by providing the required information and wait for the confirmation message, which you should receive within a few business days.

Now, your turn

I believe I’ve discussed the most important things you need to know about the Payoneer card and the process of getting yours.

Do you think I missed something? Are there some things you would like to know that I didn’t mention? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment. And don’t forget to share this post with your friends.